Trauger, Elaine

              ORAL HISTORY OF ELAINE TRAUGER
Interviewed by Amy Fitzgerald, Ph.D.
Filmed by Keith McDaniel
March 12, 2010
 
Dr. Fitzgerald: We're here today to interview Mrs. Elaine Trauger, and Mrs. Trauger was a City Council member from June 1977 through June 1989 for the City of Oak Ridge. And so, Mrs. Trauger, I'm going to be asking you a few questions, a little bit about your background and wondered could you tell us a little bit about your background, where you were raised, and what brought you to Oak Ridge?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, you ask the questions and I’ll see if I can answer it.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay. Where were you raised? Where did you grow up?
Mrs. Trauger: In North Carolina.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay. In what part?
Mrs. Trauger: On a farm in North Carolina. And I went to school in Greensboro. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: In Greensboro.
Mrs. Trauger: And had the – I’m tongue-tied. I am tongue-tied for this kind of a thing. I lived fifteen miles out of Greensboro and I owned a home that’s still there. And I’m going to take Mario over there. If you want to go with me, well you can.
Dr. Fitzgerald: What did your daddy do for a living?
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, Lord. He did everything. He had a business in Greensboro and he worked in –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Farming?
Mrs. Trauger: What?
Dr. Fitzgerald: Was he a farmer?
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, no. No he wasn’t a farmer. He was in a car all the time.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Oh, okay. Traveled a lot?
Mrs. Trauger: And he was – but he was – my Lord have mercy, what in the – Daddy would give me a spanking if – he knew how to do that and, but –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Did you have any brothers or sisters?
Mrs. Trauger: I had one sister.
Dr. Fitzgerald: One sister? What was her name?
Mrs. Trauger: Eloise.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Eloise?
Mrs. Trauger: Yes. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay. 
Mrs. Trauger: And she taught school in Greensboro. And she taught third grade and she just loved it. And if anybody didn’t have a coat, she bought it for them. She was just, you know, she was just very much dedicated to third grade. That was her level that she just enjoyed doing something for them, and she would – she was a happy, successful teacher in Greensboro for a long time. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Now how – how old were you when you left Greensboro to go to school? Did you – did you go to –
Mrs. Trauger: I didn’t leave Greensboro to go to school.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay. So you –
Mrs. Trauger: I went to the college there.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Greensboro College?
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Greensboro. UNC-Greensboro?
Mrs. Trauger: What?
Dr. Fitzgerald: University of North Carolina-Greensboro?
Mrs. Trauger: No, no, no. We had a more selective choice. It was a good school in Greensboro.
Dr. Fitzgerald: And what did you study in school?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, whatever they put on the calendar. That was my study.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Were you a dietician?
Mrs. Trauger: No. No, no. I was a – I was in – after I – after I got started I –
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Mrs. Trauger: Cattle. Absolutely. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay.
Mrs. Trauger: And he –
Dr. Fitzgerald: So your father was a cattleman?
Mrs. Trauger: What? 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Your father was a cattleman? You raised cattle?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, he was a bunch of things. He had an office in Greensboro and he did things like getting up and going to have breakfast with some of his goodies up there and getting it arranged so that he could have complimentary work with a number of people there. And he was a very happy and successful man.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Can you tell us a little bit about the circumstances that brought you to Oak Ridge. Were you in – how did you and your husband meet?
Mrs. Trauger: Lord have mercy. What?
Dr. Fitzgerald: Were you in New York. Did you – did you meet in New York? Did you –
Mrs. Trauger: As a matter of fact we did.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay.
Mrs. Trauger: I was in school in New York.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes.
Mrs. Trauger: And it – I loved the place. I – we both did as a matter of fact. He was anxious to achieve as many successful men are. And he was – he was a – I’m –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Do you remember when you first moved to Oak Ridge?
Mrs. Trauger: What?
Dr. Fitzgerald: Do you remember where you lived when you first moved to Oak Ridge? Do you remember when you moved to Oak Ridge and what it was like here?
Mrs. Trauger: Yes. I lived in a house over off of Florida Avenue and I didn’t – and the lady – I didn’t have quite as much family as one of the ladies that I lived two doors from. She had eleven children. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Oh, my goodness. My goodness.
Mrs. Trauger: And that was interesting. [laughter] She – we 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Do you remember where – did you – where did you do most of your shopping? When you went grocery shopping – did they have – was it A&P?
Mrs. Trauger: Down the street about four houses off of Florida. Then, yes, we were happily situated. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yeah. Do you remember how that – did you live there for a long time?
Mrs. Trauger: No. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: No.
Mrs. Trauger: It was an “A” house and I had two children while I was there. Two boys, and everything moved the way it was supposed to. They had some crazy, crazy things by which they tried to follow, you know. I lived next to a woman who became a real close friend. And she had three or four children and I didn’t have any, of course, to start with. But everything was pretty well scheduled for all of us who came from out of town.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yeah. What types of things did you do? Did you – bring your boys to the park or were they –
Mrs. Trauger: What now?
Dr. Fitzgerald: What types of things did you do when you said they had everything pretty well scheduled for you?
Mrs. Trauger: Well I ran the cafeteria at the high school. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Oh, Okay. 
Mrs. Trauger: And that was something that it – I was known – it became known that I was a home economist and – and so I quickly got involved in the food service at the high school. And we – we had a challenge with trying to feed everybody. And it worked. It worked out all right. It was – we –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, do you remember what inspired you or what caused you to run for City Council? What made you interested in running for city government? For City Council, being part of city government? Do you remember? Is that – you were first elected in 1977?
Mrs. Trauger: Is that when it was?
Dr. Fitzgerald: Uh-huhn.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, you tell me.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, was there – did you get – was it something – were you always interested in city government or were you members? Did you participate in some of the civic organizations or did somebody urge you to run for City Council? What was – do you remember anything about your election, your campaign? Did you –
Mrs. Trauger: I just think I got picked up and stuck there.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, it must have stuck because you served twelve years on City Council. Yes.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, we – actually it – what I did was do – buy the food and I – I had persons call on me to tell – to let – to sell it to me. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes.
Mrs. Trauger: That’s what I’m trying to say.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay.
Mrs. Trauger: And it’s – it was – I did that for two years – was it two years or was it longer I don’t know. But that’s –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Do you remember when you were on City Council? And were there any – like one when I had talked to you back in a previous interview one of the big issues was with the Department of Energy and helping raise money for the city. Do you remember any of the big issues that were facing the city when you –
Mrs. Trauger: I haven’t thought about them for a long time.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Mrs. Trauger: No.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Because one – one of the things that they were going through, I guess during that period was the department – the federal government was making payments to the city to help maintain a budget for the city and help pay for city services. And so they were trying to figure out a way to diversify the economy so they could bring in more business to Oak Ridge and help establish businesses so they would have less reliance on the Department of Energy and a lot of changes like that. 
Mrs. Trauger: I listened and I tried to cooperate. But most of the time I was getting those ten people or trying to feed all those people. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Oh my goodness.
Mrs. Trauger: Getting them in line so that we would – we would have lunch for everybody.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay.
Mrs. Trauger: And it was – I had some interesting interviews. Some of the VIPs, you know, I mean in the school system, would come and – and ask questions and so on. And it was – I had some kind of silly experiences but. One was that this – one of the – the dining room in the – where we brought people in a hundred at a time. It was a fairly interesting way of living. And while the women were in the kitchen cooking then we moved on and got some more people and we fed a lot of people up there. And it was a – we had a lot of kind of exciting activities. And I had one that I kind of like to tell about. They – the dining room was small and – so I’ve – one day I was trying to get things moved and get everybody through there and all that because everybody was hungry, of course. And we had – I had this occasion to correct the activities sometimes. And it was – it was – it was a challenge but I really enjoyed it because we tried to make – have things in for lunch that everybody likes. You know, I mean and that’s – that’s a challenge. And – but one day I had a boy in the back of the room and I was busy behind the counter and so on. And I said I was going to – I was going to try and keep people in order, you know. And this one boy got – he crawled over the table. Now that, I’m not going to blame him any more than the fact that whoever built that place for those – that many people. But anyway I went out around – he crawled over a table. He – and everything was jammed in there. And so I got out and I met him outside. And I – he crawled – when he went over the tables it gave him more freedom because – it was a tiny place really when I think back about it. But –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, can I ask you about a couple of people and you can tell me a little bit about your recollections?
Mrs. Trauger: Sure.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Like we were talking earlier about Mayor Roy Pruett.
Mrs. Trauger: Yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: What – what would you say about Mayor Pruett in your experience working with him.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, I think he gave his all. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. Yeah. 
Mrs. Trauger: He was a – 
Dr. Fitzgerald: You said you were friends with his wife?
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, yes. Yes. I’ve – I had known her and played bridge with her for a while. But that was a – and he’s still a friend.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. Well, good. How about Jackie Bernard? Tell me a little bit about Jackie.
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, Jackie is a jewel. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes.
Mrs. Trauger: Absolutely a jewel. She’s a – she could get all the crooks out of every problem. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. Did you rely on Jackie a lot when you were on City Council? Did she kind of help all the Council members?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, yes. And – and she knew so much about it you wouldn’t dare think of crossing her because she’s been there longer than I had.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Oh. How about – do you remember Lyle Lacy? Was he city manager?
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, of course. Oh, of course. Lyle was a good friend and a very smart person.
Dr. Fitzgerald: How about Larry Dickens? Did you serve – you served with Larry Dickens on City Council? 
Mrs. Trauger: Yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Do you remember Larry?
Mrs. Trauger: Yes. Oh, yes. Yes. He was okay too. We had a – we had – I think that we got a lot of help from those people that had been around here longer than we had. So –
Dr. Fitzgerald: What would you say about Oak Ridge now? How have you seen things change in Oak Ridge since you’ve lived here? Some of the biggest changes you’ve seen? Are there a lot more, of course, the housing’s, you know, quite a bit different. How’s the community changed?
Mrs. Trauger: I beg your pardon?
Dr. Fitzgerald: How – how do you see the community having changed over the time you’ve lived in Oak Ridge? Do you see any differences between the time, like you in the ’70s versus now or – 
Mrs. Trauger: Well I’m not very much involved in it now so I’m – I’m – 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Just your observations about the town and – have you been to high school?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, I’ve taken it – I’ve taken it step by step so – so I think it’s doing – it’s going all right.	
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay. Well, have you been to the new high school since they’ve remodeled the high school?
Mrs. Trauger: Yes. Yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. What do you think about that?
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, it seems like a – good ideas are being tossed out.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah. Did your – let’s see. Were you involved in other organizations in town? Were you involved in like the Girl’s Club or the church?
Mrs. Trauger: I haven’t been in quite a while.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yeah. Did you used to volunteer for them?
Mrs. Trauger: I beg your pardon.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Did you – did you used to volunteer for the Girl’s Club?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, I have done some of that. But I have not spent a lot of time there. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: What are your favorite things to do now? Do you still play bridge?
Mrs. Trauger: No. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: No?
Mrs. Trauger: No. I enjoy playing – I enjoy bridge but it’s not – I haven’t played in quite a while right this minute. I have some physical problems that are not letting me go try to change the world.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Can you tell us a little bit about your sons? Is Byron the older – your older son?
Mrs. Trauger: Byron is a couple years older than Tom. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay. And what are their professions? What do they do for a living?
Mrs. Trauger: Lawyers.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Both of them?
Mrs. Trauger: Mhm.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay. Do you remember which elementary school they went to?
Mrs. Trauger: Yes. The one down in off of –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Linden?
Mrs. Trauger: No, no, no. It was not right close to our house.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Woodland?
Mrs. Trauger: No that’s not where I lived. I lived off of Florida. And – and we – they moved along and went to college.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Very successful.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, they seem to be doing something that they enjoy.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Is there any – is there anything else about your time on City Council that you would like to talk about? Do – did you have any other – were you on any committees in particular that you remember? Like now we have a budget committee. Was the city – was it hard to pass a budget for the city do you remember? What are some of the –
Mrs. Trauger: No, I just took it step by step. And I tried to keep a clear picture of what was going on and it was – I think we did pretty well.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Did – when – when you weren’t busy working and did you go – what did people do for social activities? Were there dances or did you go to the movies much or – you mentioned you played bridge. What other – were there any other things that you did in the community? Did you ever go to the library and spend time there?
Mrs. Trauger: Yes, I went to the library. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yeah. Yeah.
Mrs. Trauger: It’s – it’s a good place to go. In fact that’s on my list to get back down there because I know – I want to chase up some things that I’ve heard about. But I – that – I have some physical problems that I have to mess with so I just try to keep – be in charge of that too.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, is there anything else you’d like to talk about? About your growing up here in Oak Ridge or your children growing up here, what it was like or working –
Mrs. Trauger: Well, I didn’t grow up here. Yeah.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, I know. But having your children. You know, what was it like when they were growing up here? Did they –
Mrs. Trauger: They enjoyed going to school and it was – it was challenging for them and – and it was – I don’t guess I have anything to say. I’ll let the teachers do that. But the boys are – have always been interested in learning and I’ve tried to help with that. So – excuse me.
Dr. Fitzgerald: That’s okay.
Mrs. Trauger: But they – they’ve both been good students and there’s just two of them. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Oh yeah. See I’m going to have to come back over here when your daffodils are in bloom and take a peek.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, all right. You come back and we’ll just sit here and gab.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Did you plant a lot of the daffodils or did somebody? You said you’ve got them all out here. Different people plant them around the neighborhood?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, yes. I mean everybody does their own thing. It’s –
Dr. Fitzgerald: I like to garden. I’m looking forward to spring so I can get out and 
dig in the dirt a little bit. And one of the things, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the Arboretum, down here. The UT Arboretum? 
Mrs. Trauger: Yes. Yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: They asked me to work with them. 
Mrs. Trauger: Thank you.
Dr. Fitzgerald: So I’m on their board right now and they’ve planted a lot of bulbs this past year. And one of the things that we were talking about and is still – my people that I work with at the city still talk a lot about is the campaign in Oak Ridge to plant the Bradford Pear trees.
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes.
Mrs. Trauger: One of my best friends was a promoter of that.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes, really?
Mrs. Trauger: Julie Carter.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Okay.
Mrs. Trauger: Do you know her?
Dr. Fitzgerald: I know her name. I don’t think I’ve met her.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, she’s a – she’s been a friend of mine a long time. And I – I was always pleased with her enthusiasm for that and we all got the pear trees.
Dr. Fitzgerald: There’s a lot of them still in town. A lot of them.
Mrs. Trauger: Yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yeah.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, she’s a – has a pretty garden. You know. Actually, she’s had some problems, health problems and so it’s not – as it used to be. But – would anybody like water besides me?
Dr. Fitzgerald: No, we’re fine. Thank you. Well – and the other thing I noticed you have one of the replicas of the peace bells there. And I remember back in, I guess it was 1992 when they had the anniversary of Oak Ridge and the – and they put the – do you ever – have you been down to the park to see the big bell down in the – the peace bell?
Mrs. Trauger: Of course I have. Of course I have. I was really very much involved in that.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Were you? What did – what did you do? What was your involvement?
Mrs. Trauger: Well, helping design what we wanted to do. 
Dr. Fitzgerald: Did you? You helped design the – the bell or the location for it where they were going to put it?
Mrs. Trauger: Yes, I think I was dabbling in that too.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, I know they tell a story of when the bell came and was delivered to the city. And for a while they had – they had it sitting in the foyer in that little area outside the city manager’s office there. There was a big crane and they had the bell positioned there before they could put it down into Bissell Park. So people that I work with have told me about that.
Mrs. Trauger: Yes. I know about that.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Do you remember when some people wanted to build an airport in Oak Ridge? Do you remember anything about that? 
Mrs. Trauger: Well, I never took that very seriously. I thought that was pretty silly. Excuse me. Excuse me. If you helped do it I don’t –
Dr. Fitzgerald: No, that was before my time. 
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, it was?
Dr. Fitzgerald: That was before my time.
Mrs. Trauger: All right. Well it’s a – it’s fun to be talking with people who care and want to make suggestions and stuff.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Do you remember the – did you ever serve or know anybody that served on the planning commission or any of the other – like when I came to work for the city I was – worked a lot with the Environmental Quality Advisory Board, the EQAB. And they are the tree board for the city. So – they are still – every year they have the Arbor Day and there’s a planting at a different elementary school. And they just had that last Friday. So –
Mrs. Trauger: Next Friday did you –
Dr. Fitzgerald: It was this past Friday. They planted a tree at Woodland School. 
Mrs. Trauger: Oh, yeah. Okay.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Last year it was at Glenwood. They planted one in Glenwood last year. 
Mrs. Trauger: Well, that’s – it’s a – it’s interesting to get people involved in these things that we’ll live, hopefully, to – to enjoy and see the –
Dr. Fitzgerald: Well, this – the subdivision that you live in now, it’s relatively new. Do you – how long have you lived in your current home?
Mrs. Trauger: Ever since – ever since we – I haven’t lived in any other home in this – in the town.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Yes. Okay. So you’ve been here –
Mrs. Trauger: Don and I came – well, but we were in New York in – so – but I like this area very much.
Dr. Fitzgerald: Very nice. Well, I want to thank you so much for taking your time and talking to us. And I’m so happy to see you again. It’s been a while –
Mrs. Trauger: Well, yes.
Dr. Fitzgerald: – and I hope to see you again soon.
Mrs. Trauger: Well, come back.
Dr. Fitzgerald: I’m going to bring Jackie back because she really wants to come.
Mrs. Trauger: All right. Do that.
Dr. Fitzgerald: I will do that.
Mrs. Trauger: Please do that.
Dr. Fitzgerald: If Marty will help me arrange that, I will bring her back.
Mrs. Trauger: I really – I just really am so taken with that girl. She’s – she’s a first-rate person.
[end of recording]